Donors ‘GiveBIG’ to Issaquah History Museums
May 15, 2012
The Seattle Foundation’s GiveBIG campaign generated $7.43 million in online contributions for nonprofit organizations May 2, including more than $1,000 for the Issaquah History Museums.
During the 24-hour online event, people made donations to more than 1,100 area nonprofit organizations. The Seattle Foundation “stretched” the gifts by matching a share of every contribution from a pool of funds provided by corporate sponsors, individual contributors and the foundation.
Gifts started coming in at midnight and, overall, donors made more than 37,800 individual online gifts. GiveBIG attracted donations from all 50 states and 23 foreign countries.
“GiveBIG brings together two of our region’s greatest passions — technology and philanthropy — in a way that truly excites and unites the people of King County,” former Seattle Mayor Norm Rice, The Seattle Foundation president and CEO, said in a statement. “I have never seen a stronger display of generosity and community spirit than what I witnessed today with GiveBIG.”
1940 Census data offers snapshot of Issaquah after Great Depression
May 8, 2012
1940 Census ledger from Issaquah
For historians around the world, including members of the Issaquah History Museums, April 2 was a big day.
Executive Director Erica Maniez had her own personal countdown going for that particular Monday, because after finally fulfilling the mandatory 72-year waiting period, records from the 1940 U.S. Census were released by the U.S. National Archives.
“It was interesting to see some of the old familiar families, and how the next generations down were living in their own households,” she said. “I’ve noticed quite a few people that I’ve known since I worked here who have since passed away, but I did know some people here that are still living.”
Press Editorial
May 8, 2012
Park bond should include new museum
Voters last passed a park bond six years ago.
The city will soon launch a public opinion survey to gauge residents’ interest in what the bond might include. The survey should reach residents by late spring or early summer.
Catching a legacy as Issaquah Salmon Hatchery turns 75
April 24, 2012
Vicki Hahn (above, left), FISH master docent, uses hatchery sculptures Gillda and Finley to explain how salmon spawn for Lika Clark, 9, her brother Peter Ginter, 13, and their mother Jessica Ginter. By Greg Farrar
The humble buildings along a downtown street and the simple bridge across Issaquah Creek do not call out for attention, but the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery is iconic nonetheless — so iconic, the hatchery and the salmon raised in manmade ponds serve as symbols for Issaquah and the region.
120 years of Issaquah
April 24, 2012
Click on the image to view the full-size timeline.
1892
- Issaquah is founded as Gilman. The city is named for railroad baron Daniel Hunt Gilman.
1893
- The postmaster called for mail sent to Gilman to be addressed to Olney, Wash., to avoid confusion between Gilman and Gilmer, another city in the state.
1895
- Townsfolk start calling the frontier town Issaquah, or “the sound of water birds” in the language of the American Indians native to the region.
1899
- State lawmakers approve official name change from Gilman to Issaquah.
‘GiveBIG’ to local nonprofit organizations May 2
April 24, 2012
The Seattle Foundation is staging a day of charitable giving in King County — and people can donate to numerous Issaquah-based organizations and groups serving local residents.
The foundation’s GiveBIG fundraising is a daylong event May 2.
GiveBIG invites people to make donations to almost 1,000 nonprofit organizations, including the Issaquah Schools Foundation, Village Theatre, Friends of the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery, Habitat for Humanity of East King County, Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust, YWCA of Seattle-King-Snohomish and the Together Center.
Each donation made to the more than 1,300 nonprofit organizations profiled on The Seattle Foundation’s website between midnight and midnight receives a pro-rated portion of the matching funds, or “stretch,” pool. The amount of the “stretch” depends on the size of the stretch pool and how much is raised in total donations on GiveBIG day
Find a complete list of participating organizations and donation information at The Seattle Foundation’s website, www.seattlefoundation.org.
Rowan and Barbara Hinds celebrate 50th anniversary
April 24, 2012
Rowan and Barbara Hinds
Apparently they were no fools to marry on April 1, 1962!
Rowan and Barbara met at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Ore., in 1960. Rowan was in the Army Reserve Officers Training Corps, and upon graduation in 1962, he was commissioned a second lieutenant and they got married. Their honeymoon was a cross-country trip to Augusta, Ga., where he attended basic officer’s school at Fort Gordon.
After more schooling at Fort Monmouth, N.J., Rowan was sent to France, where Barb joined him a few months later. They spent one year in France followed by two years in Germany before returning to Corvallis, where Rowan obtained his master’s degree.
In 1967, they moved to Longview when Rowan took a position with Northern Pacific Railway Timberlands (now Plum Creek Timber), and Barbara concentrated on building their first home and raising their toddler with a second on the way.
Kiwanis Club of Issaquah hosts Titanic expert to commemorate tragedy’s 100th anniversary
April 10, 2012
Don Lynch, author of ‘Titanic: An Illustrated History,’ stands on the Grand Staircase set for the 1997 film ‘Titanic.’ Contributed
In the icy deep, more than 12,500 feet beneath the surface, a steel wall emerges, alien and foreboding, from the North Atlantic seabed.
Don Lynch peers through a porthole in a small submersible, as bulbous as a whale and built to endure the extreme cold and intense pressure at such depths. The other occupants in the craft include filmmaker James Cameron.
“We pulled up to the side of it and Jim was like, ‘There’s the Titanic for you,’” Lynch recalled in a recent interview. “In the movies, you always come up to the bow and the prow’s sticking up and rising above you, but it was just this flat wall out in front of us.”
Lynch, a historian considered among the foremost Titanic experts on the planet, descended to the wreck in August and September 2001. The noted author also served as a consultant on Cameron’s 1997 film about the doomed ocean liner.
Check out Washington history with historian’s new book
April 3, 2012
Lorraine McConaghy
A public historian for the Seattle Museum of History & Industry, Lorraine McConaghy describes her new book as an “exhibition between book covers.”
For “New Land, North of the Columbia,” McConaghy visited at least 50 archives, from national registries to small-town history museums. Very little of the research was done on the Internet. One reason is that some of the items she hoped to gather just aren’t available electronically, she said.
But probably more importantly, McConaghy said she wanted to actually see and feel the documents, wanted to see the context from which they emerged.
“I wanted to look at the material, to hold it in my hands,” she added.
Experience life in Issaquah 100 years ago — outhouses, saloons and all
February 21, 2012
Forget the buttoned-up suburb, circa 2012, to envision Issaquah from a century ago.
Issaquah in 1912 included more saloons than churches. The coalmines and logging camps attracted a tough-as-nails crowd. The era required a little more steel in the backbone.
Townsfolk eked out a hardscrabble life, but still managed to loosen up at the Stockholm Hotel & Saloon or Clark’s Place. In homes, simple conveniences — indoor plumbing, for instance — ranked as unheard-of luxuries.
Imagine a typical day from 1912.
The chill February air is a bracing alarm, almost as difficult to ignore as the crowing rooster outside.
